Jay's Blog.

[jay7]

Footbag at the moment, in my basement, is all over the map. I have so many drills that I want to drill, and not enough time to hit every footbag trick ever invented. I guess that is a slight problem with being excited, because you don't focus quite right. Either way, each session has definetly had its own trickset and drillset that I have worked on, and I'll list some things from them,

(in some sort of, chronological order...)

Atomsmasher->atomsmasher links, I've gotten WAY more consistent in just 3 days of it. First day I hit maybe, 5 times of atom*4? And it was a "Fuck, why do I keep dropping on the 2/3rd one?". Now, I am not bothering with hitting more than four, (muscle memory? Maybe I should vary the number of repeats) and it comes probably the second attempt at a session.

Barfly->barfly links. Well, I'll explain this after swirls....

I was talking to Penske about footbag, and he seemed to be pretty set on hitting swirls after tricks, because it needs SUCH a solid delay and stop in momentum. So, after a session of osis/dyno/blender/whirl/reverse whirl->Swirl/Reverse Swirl variants, I thought "Hey, why not hit some swirling sets! Matt Cross can do it!" And I thought swirling drifter would be pretty neat. (Shit, I am lying to all of you. Swirling drifter came the day before penske's talk) and got swirling drifter bs. It was alot like Vasek's in Feet on Fire, very high set, but I did it Same side, not paradox. I guess if I lunged, whatever, control over hitting retarted tricks.

So, then Penske mentioned swirls, and I drilled them for most of the session. I found out a day later that my calves were rock hard from being cranked so hard, as my feeble ankles have no flexibility and cranking to delay the bag (after osis tricks) longer than usual takes its toll on my untrained muscles. So, I didn't want to do many barflies or pdx whirls, as the landing could charlie-horse my calf and I didn't want to take a stupid chance. So, today the muscle was barely noticable, so double dex's and whirls were fair game...

Barfly->Barfly. Oddly enough, I didn't try that today. At the same time as Penske, I spoke with Mr. Zeb Jackson, who mentioned plasticman, which involves a whole bunch of double dexes in every direction. I said "HOLY SHIT!" when he said some of his double dex highlights, so I decided to see how poorly I was at some of the irregular ones.

I hit flip Clipper set double down, so, ddd? Maybe DOD? I don't know, ss barfly, first try. Then 4 more tries in a row too. So then I got paradon, barfly and ss Barfly bsos, first time. I forgot that I had been neglecting poor toe ss double down, and tried it. Yeah, so, trying that trick about 4 times in my life was noticeable, and it took about 10 tries to figure out. Eventually I got the hang of the set though, and got it 4 times in a row each side. I actually surprised myself with that, but I guess now that the motion is normal, each set is just a bit different. So, a toe set shouldn't be something surprising at all....

Anyway, I got barrage->paradon->barfly*rpt, and was pretty happy about it. The barrage is definetly my weak link, as the furious motion is alot more natural than the flurry motion for my legs, but I would be shocked if I video myself tomorrow and find out the barrages were the. They feel good anyway, but I would really enjoy hitting plastic man, at least each half bsos tomorrow. Who knows, maybe today I was just shit lucky and shouldn't be so optimistic. I'll find out, and then be cocky about things.

Blender->blender, well, my flipside has changed just about every day with them. For months until now, I could say that the blender motion felt more natural on my left hip side, but since I drilled my right so much the last couple of days it has had more of the confident feeling. I figure once I can hit 6 blenders b2b, 5 times, in one session I'll start trying pdx blenders. I got 4 blenders b2b 5 times a couple of days ago, so perhaps it will just be a couple weeks before they are real solid.

Torque drills. Well, before GRASS I was getting torque->ripwalk*rpt's once a session, and was annoyed that it was hard. I decided not to waste to much time on it, because no one notices torques unless you are Chris Dean anyway. I started with infinity->torque drilling, and penske's mirage dex motion seems to be working for me. I'm sure you all know it, when I describe it anyway, it is like a door swinging open, the body stays vertical but the miraging Knee swings in a nice circumference motion. Perhaps in a month I'll wake up, and see how far my torques have come. That is always a nice feeling, thinking back to what you drilled before and how it is easy now. Think about it, any blog readers, the first time you drilled osis->infinity, and chuckle a wee bit.......

Rubberman. For a while I automatically assumed my clipper was good enough to not be the weak spot in rubberman, and that I needed atomics. Today, after close examination, I found my blur was the problem. I think this same problem leads to having Stepping ss whirls (ss implied? Who cares...) being impossible, because for SO long the only stepping tricks I have done have been ripwalk. It doesn't matter if the bag goes a bit sideways, as long as you move your body mostly, it will be clean. Anyway, blurs, everytime I set from them with something crucial like atomic, (pixie = not crucial, for example) I fumble. This was overlooked I believe, because I can get blur->dimwalk as many times as I want, as long as the bag lands on your toe.

So I drilled Stepping ss clipper->Blurry clipper *rpt, and suddenly I think stepping ss whirl will be REALLY easy, because before I was doing the stepping set all wrong. For those who can hit the impossible trick, consider trying to ss whirl the footbag when it is going crossbody, and think why I called it impossible. Foolish? Indeed.


Tomorrow's session: Plasticman practise, I'll have to come up with a blur practise run, maybe sidewalk->stepping ss clipper->*rpt, and I might add a spice of Quantum, so I stop feeling guilty about neglecting such a stlyish set....
______________________

Johnny/Tom! I assume you may have skipped to the end of the post by now, seeing as there is a long line above this part. Thank you for your compliments and general nice gestures, it means more to me than you probably know I look up to both of you alot, thank you. I am really fortunate to be able to travel and play with you guys.

Und Matthias,

Ich habe meine würzeln NICHT vergessen! Mein footbag-hertz ist naturlich aus Deutschland, und ohne dich würde ich velleicht kein footbag spielen. Schade dass du kein zeit zum spielen hast, aber geil ist es auch. Du hast eine freundin und hund-chen wer du liebst! Wann ich zurück nach Wiesbaden kommen wirde, mussen wir mit Clemens, Julian, Marcus (Warte mal, 4 monate? Mai, Juni, Juli, August,,...Velleicht geht er?) und Simon zusammen spielen. Dann können wir um alles sprechen, wie dass leben ist...Dass erinnert mich! Du hast die beste shred music in der welt! Ich vermisse es... ,,Mein leben ist so schön'' geht die Lied..Oder?

[jay7]

So modified, I made my first video. It was 13 minutes long, and I am twisted about whether or not it showed my ''Real'' ability. In some regards, it made me look better than I am, and in some ways it was very repetitive. Either way, there is enough of a mix that I wouldn't feel to sorry for showing it to anyone, if they had to decide where I was along the footbag timeline. At least I made the effort to get good scenery and, hopefully, edit it well enough that it wasn't extremely boring to those better than I am.

Johnny Suderman is one of the people I know that I am extremely fortunate to know. On friday morning, I called him up extremely last minute and COMPLETELY invited myself over. One of my friends was driving close to his house, and offered me a ride (1 hour and a bit away) and I called Johnny at 8:00 in the morning, and within two minutes he said I could come and sleep over at his house. Seriously, what a guy! After missing the bent over sign that his street is on about 12 times, calling him each time for new directions, he must have been pretty frustrated, but I couldn't tell from his voice or reactions at all. He waited outside for me, and then invited me into his humble abode.

We played footbag at a skatepark, and a river. The sun was going down, and we played as long as it was easy to concentrate on the bag. I hit some stuff, some strings I had alot of control with which I was happy about. Bothsided effortless everything really, and Johnny showed me how sexy furious really is. Go ahead, you owe it to yourself, http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=stFzT6rtquY

Watch the nemesis at the end, and tell me you don't want to learn furious. Anyway, by the end of my stay it was getting alot more consistent, and i was happy that effortlessly it was developing both sided. Before when all I did was say 'Look at me, I am hitting big tricks!' I would go for furious, for things like nemesis, and it felt so awesome. When I have recently tried to get furious as a staple five add, it never felt quite as bad ass as it did before. Johnny showed me the light, and every furious set from now on will probably be eternally grateful to his stupendous-ness. Once I learn how to play footbag, I will hit swifters like him too. The secret is all in the step I do believe, and since I have hit SOO many ripwalks to pop a stepping set, with your legs no more than a few inches apart, and turn a handful of degrees to clear a massive window for the swirl, is hard. Reread the sentence, I think it makes sense.

We stitched too. Johnny is an experienced stitcher, with tons of facile. If any of you have seen champions league, do you remember the part with Steve Goldberg? He gets new Red Rod Lavers, and he just holds them to his face and kisses and savours their very existence like the king off of the cartoon Robin Hood. Anyway, that is what Johnny SHOULD be doing every night when he goes to sleep, but I guess that wouldn't be quite his style. We decided to take the same template and make eachother a bag, to see how different the stitching styles were, and there were interesting results. He stitches close to the edge, gathers, and gets a smaller bag than when I stitch deep, and don't gather as much. I tried about 3 different things on the bag, and I feel like a puss. The bag didn't quite come out to my standards, and his bag was, a johnny bag. Moses, if only the entire modifed community knew how awesome his bags were. They play way different than everyone else's, because they don't roll. Once they break in, they just, go up and down without spinning at all. If you are reading this to yourself, say 'At all' with a huge emphasis on the t, and that is my calculus teacher's masculinity in a nutshell.

Fuck it, here goes a rant on my calc teacher.

This man, is a god. Trust me, there is no more room in this world for another similar. HE has massive glasses, a limp, full grown mustaches, bruffy eyebrows, ALWAYS black chalk covered jeans. I have had him first and last period, it does not matter, he ALWAYS has chalk on his jeans. Sometimes the room we are in has a whiteboard. Pens and pencils in pocket protector, and someone who has fruityloops make a drumroll,

every morning at 8:00 for math tutorial he has pitstains. No matter what time it is, the discolouration under his soft 65 year old shoulders reminds me of a bathing hole hippopotamuses relish over. Man god. Every test is titled 'game day' and all semester he encourages us to play the game.

So anyway, I need to stitch Johnny a new bag, but I hope I can find the time. T.O. jam is going to be a squeeze, I can't believe so many cool people are going to make it. Penske and Grant will be centers of attention, and I hope they don't mind. Circle comp is going to be, well, I need to film it at least. I mean, assumedly, Jorden, Penske, Grant, Johnny.. I am not sure if any other Greats are coming, so the order could change a bit, but that is what I expect. Two bap, and two Super Bap players. Moses. I hope Penske can hit one of those 'When are you going to end' strings that makes everyone jump up and clap, well, maybe I'll be the only one excited enough to do that. That is the reason I go to tournaments really. Just how awesome other people are, is, unexplainable. Andrew Grant will hopefully hit whirl tricks, as he owns their style, and if Johnny doesn't hit the new trick he was drilling this weekend I'd be sad. Don't get too excited, it's not like fairy atomic ducking walk away and get a lemonade or anything, but rather a 'my name is johnny and I just cleared both dexes, but I'll ask if it was clean' trick. Jorden will pull something crazy out of his self I am sure. He hits mindbender alot in circle, so maybe this time he'll do blurry or something. Which reminds me, how come Jorden is the only one who ever brings a water bottle to circle? Think about it.

If you did think about it, I'm not sure why. There was no hidden meaning.

Anyway, I am going to do english and mothers day today, but hopefully I can drill nuclear and furious sometime. Good day good sirs.

[jay7]

Yeah so, writeups with pictures and more than 4000 words don't work on a single post. The next two are my TO jam writeup.

[jay7]

Booyah! FOOTBAG!

So, write up here we come. I am excited about this one.

Was I ever not excited about one?

So, Friday. I go to school, backback full. I was second guessing myself all through the day as to what I might have forgotten at home, as I was not going to make it home before I caught the bus to Toronto. Mid Calculus I walk out and there was a "good luck Jay" grunt from the class, as they for whatever reason think I will win it. It confuses me, as I can't accurately describe that just because I might have placed in Grass that I was LIGHTYEARS away from the best. It was a perfect green sunny day, and as I walked past my former house on the way to the bus station I thought about how I used to skateboard everymorning at 6 AM before school, and wonder why I don't do that for footbag. Perhaps it is because I used to not have homework, and I was 10 and didn't care if I woke anyone up. The bus ride to Toronto was odd, as I was tired and the traffic was horrible, so I slept.

I take out the map Mike Faille made, and inspected it. Jebus, he did such a good Job! A must have for any event in a city like Toronto. He even drew a footbagger acting like Godzilla prouncing around Toronto getting shot at by planes. Phone numbers were on it, and a COMPLETE itinerary for the weekend. Such a good idea. So, I look at the map, and walk to the HTO *Hpo?* spot, relook at the map, and realize I was retarted and that I had to walk 400 more meters to get to the other park. Good thing it was in the same direction. It gave me the long time to get the nervous/excited footbag Jam juices flowing, and I prayed to god one of the many runners/bikers of Toronto wouldn't Mow over my ankle and render my useless. Finally, I approach a set of stairs with shrubbery about, and see sweaty people. Most of the FAT crew was there and shredding, James was playing too. There were two circles, and I got to give Josh *lackey* his Grass shirts he requested. Josh is still Josh, and he still plays footbag like Josh. He also wears GRASS shirts like you would expect Josh to wear them. Around the corner I saw a dear man with a buzz cut taking pictures, and felt bad that I didn't recognize him. I didn't want to be awkward and walk up and say "I don't know who you are, I am Jay, hear me roar!", so I sat on a bench.

Two minutes later, I double take, and it was Andrew Grant! HE didn't have hair! Or red climas for that matter, he was fully clothed. He was really approachable once I didn't have to roar, and he and Ben Rawsko inspired me to play instead of sit my fat ass on a bench. Me and Ben stayed in the same circle most of the day, which made me automatically juxtipose (I butchered that. Ouch) the relationship Zac/Matt have, and wonder if I had it with Ben. Good thing is, Ben rocks, so it didn't matter what I had with him. He was playing in Quantums, instead of a broken barefoot like he was at Grass. That made me happy. He does two dex toe shuffle like nothing. In fact, his legs move so smoothly I am not sure how the bag doesn't just walk about, and start up a conversation. For those who don't know Ben's style, just imagine what a skinnier version of Vasek's clipper game would look like, if he played as smoothly with his toes. Ben hit some cool stuff, and his blurry whirls are spot on. More and more people started to show up, and with every new face I had some sort of memory. Jon Haber had the best entrance, as he wore some styley shirt and had black Gunits. Jon really makes the footbag event, so I think if I ever throw one that is out of ontario for whatever reason, I'll fly him out. Seriously, I didn't hang out with him at ALL this event, but when I do he always makes everyone around him a happier individual.

Jorden didn't come until Saturday, so no Jorden write up..

Penske however, did. Same with Matt Cross and Tom Mosher. Mhmm. When they walked up everyone acted a little like guys do when a hot girl walks by, the "am I doing this right" feelings go through everyone's mind. The question of "How do I introduce myself to him, and how in the world can I even shred with him!?" thoughts are torrenting themselves through each persons brain. I am lying, these thoughts were probably only going through my mind, but just like when I met Jorden and Clavens, after the first 3 words come out of your mouth I turned into a giddy school girl and didn't give a hoot. Crap, I missed Rabba! Ben and I were the only people staying at the Hostel on friday night, and he knew that we would need food. So after a 20 minute trek with shorts and sweat we got to a grocery store named Rabba and bought "fud". Carrots, a single cucumber, bagels and apples (which, were manly. Just like in the movies they crunched). To accompany this we bought an 8 litre jug of water, which saved us that weekend. It was a bitch for Ben to carry, as I was carrying the food itself. Hour by hour it was less of a hastle, as we drank it dry by the last minutes of our departure, without any sparing or rationing.

Penske. Penske was shredding, and I wanted to watch so I parked myself on a nearby bench, and he was destroying the bag. You could tell he was going for themed Runs, and no one was complaining. His double downs are sweet, and he hit quite a few bothsided toe shuffle runs which looked effortless. Eventually someone left the circle, and I was invited (or did I invite myself?) into the circle. Mike Faille and Camille also accompanied the circle, and it was pretty light hearted. I don't think Andrew Grant knew that I got giddy when I played with people who can play footbag. Everytime that I jumped up and down or clapped uncontrollably Andrew gave the biggest "What the hell is he doing" smile and laugh there is. Penske didn't say much about it, but when Andrew told me I would have to change my shorts soon he laughed pretty good. Turns out Penske is good at Footbag. He gave me some tips, same with everyone else. He also gave props which was cool to see, as he is one of the best. He took requests and didn't mind when my blabbermouth kept asking questions or asked him to hit tricks for personal note taking, which was selfless of him. His fluxes are nice, same with everything infact. He is a pleasure to watch, and you can really tell that he is putting effort into changing his style to be more controlled.

Eventually Ben and I reunited, and most everyone (Jorden/Johnny/Zach excluded) showed up. It was definetly dinner time, and as footbaggers are unmotivated to make a joint decision it took Tom Mosher about 30 minutes to actually lead the herd and direct us in the name of Nourishment. Even after we got the group of 30 people to start moving, somehow only 10 of us remained, twenty steps out of the park. The 10 of us went around Toronto, when the famous line *by penske* "What is that needle thing" erupted.


We then went to Subway, a smaller one, and gave them our money in turn for their Food. Along the way to subway and in Subway, the talk was alot about Top Players, and how their personality/take on things affects their shred. It was so weird to hear how Penske thought, because he is a rather unfamiliar face in the eastern scene. I think that I am going to take alot of what he said, about enjoyment, and work it into how I am. Then again, I could fall on my face trying, because it is difficult to change how you have thought for the last 17 years of your life. Matt Cross really directed the conversation, because he is the definition of Matt Cross. I was trying to tink of some sort of adjective to make him, but he is really just Matt. Everyone who knows him will know what I mean, he is just, so cool and has really good things to say. He also makes it to SO many tournaments, so he has quite a bit of experience with everybody, which makes good story time. This was also the first time any of us really heard Penske's mouth run, and just talk about stuff which entranced us all. Good stories of Prague and the dear Vasek were mentioned, and somehow there was only one "That's what she said" joke the entire time. I wonder how it feels to walk around in the Quantums of Jim Penske, as this was his second tournament he was FLOWN to in the spring of 2008. To know that you are good enough at Footbag to have someone take the money they made and tell you to get on a plane is pretty awesome. He probably knows that though,

So, most of us had to split ways as it must have been around 10:30 by the time we were done at Subway. Jesus, that is two days ago right now. *sad emotions*. Ben and I just sort of merged in the direction of Tom/Matt/Penske, as we had NO clue where our Hostel was. We both assumed someone else would know, which was kind of stupid. Even more stupid, was when we finally got to their car we looked on the Map and the hostel was RIGHT THERE, where Mike drew it. On the walk back, the uniqueness and general, nice, ness of Ben Rawsko really shined through. He makes it to quite a few tournaments, which is great because everybody should know him. He is one of those guys that is so lighthearted and intelligent that you can't have a bad conversation with him. He claimed to have a bad sense of direction, so I was fortunate enough to hold Mike's Map the entire trip. SUCH a good map! You guys have no idea. We made it to the Hostel, where it was far cooler than expected. TONS of people were there, and it had a pretty "I don't care, just don't make a mess" attitude, and the receptionists must have been <30 years old. It was quite a different feel from say, the Hyatt McCormick in Chicago NYJ, where "Vernon" prowled the streets. What a prick he was. Ben and I had the same upstairs room, where me met some Germans. These Germans were COMPLETE opposites to the unholy satanists I was involved with in my stay, they were really cool and chill about everything. Ben showed them footbag and explained everything, and they were genuinely interested. We gave them a map with directions to the tournament, and whole-heartedly expected them to think we were stupid and not show up. Ben learned more about what is to become of his Europe Trip, and we finally showered in the clean bathrooms. The soap was in Honey containors, you know the bottles that are shaped like beehives....Which infact aren't shaped like beehives. Fuck,




and it was pink.

[jay7]

We woke up to free pancakes that the hostel made for us, and were glad that we could cut up our bananas and apples to make them more eventful. In the rain ben and I trekked to the Ryerson University campus, a hefty walk away, and somehow kept talking about random shit. Chapters is stupid, and doesn't open until 10:00 AM, so we showed up at 10:10 or so and they still weren't open. Crazy toronto-arians. We took one wrong turn for about 1/8th of a mile, and then ran by Dundas Square which is kind of like the New York "Times square" everyone knows and loves. This would eventually become a certain someone's spot of glory. So, vagueness aside, Ben bought some Spenco insoles and we both attempted to get the Tim Hortons cashiers to toast the bagels we bought ourselves at Rabba. Apparently they wont do that though, which blew. At the University, we found ourselves an hour early. It was an adventure finding our way into the basement, where the gym was, but when we got there there was a clearly labeled "FAT" poster on the doors. Locked, so we went and found a free computer where we surfed the "fizzied" and tried to watch that worlds video. The computer had quicktime and downloaded the video, but it was SUUUCh a piece of crap that it wounldn't load more than the green opening screen. Ben told me I should hit ZigZag, and somehow on my strongside I hit it FIRST try ever. It took another 30 on my flip, but the motion for ripstein is so strongly engrained that my flip just didn't even look as goodwhen I did hit it. I had a bloody nose which, was attractive considering the wad of toilet paper I had stuffed in it. Ben got fed up with waiting and found Josh (dreds) in the Gym and we started to warm up, when another handful of people also showed up at the Gym. We started some circles, and I gave some tips. I still feel like such a douschebag when I give tips, because I know that I am not good enough at tricks to give the BEST advice possible. But, I can help them hit the trick better than they are presently, so that is what I did do. Everyone was appreciative, so that was less of a deal than I thought it was I guess.

Jon Haber showed up with Breakfast. JOHNNY showed up too! Go Johnny suderman! What a hero. Anyway, all of this day was kind of a blur. For six hours we just played footbag and ate Camilles awesome food. Green and Yellow peppers and Dip was a good idea, same with baked goods and gatorade. That really made the day bearable, as most tournaments you starve half of the time. Circle competitions! I don't have to say much about these, as I don't want to spoil too much. I will say Johnny fucking rocked it though.

After circle, the plan was for ben and I to shower and go back to the Bar that everyone was going to hang out at. Zac Forth was our new companion, and he made it exciting. He doesn't enjoy running through the last seconds of the walking signal however, and Ben and I had to wait a total of like, 5 excrutiating minutes the entire trip. It is funny how insignificant stuff like that is. We went to a Taco Bell/KFC, which apparently bought eachother out and merged without any of us knowing it. 2 out of the three of us were high as a kite, so my conversation with these nameless two was pretty hilarious. The things that they find funny are, funny. I got a poutine, because I was determined to find a place that sold good poutine that I could give to Penske. He never had it in his entire North American life, so I figured he had to try it. We showered. Came back. Before we went to the Bar however, he stopped by Dundas Square, and busked. It sucks that we don't know how to busk properly, because we forgot to put down a hat. Zach has such good busking ability, and you can tell he practises playing for the masses. I was the only one in short shorts, but I was SOOO sore that I couldn't play any better than as if I was in Jeans. We eventually walked away from the live singing performance, and found some breakdancers. The main breakdancer was twisted, as he had this mask on.



and it was either creepy of funny, depeding on the look he gave people. Zach walked up and showed them footbag, and they had a decent acceptance of it. I don't know how he did it. Anyway, we trotted along and found the bar, where all the cool people were. I also met a fellow named Paul, who apparently founded all of the Toronto scene in the first place. He was very intelligent, and had alot to say about anything you could throw at him. Well spoken for sure. We spoke alot of how footbag progresses, and an interesting point about mulroney was mentioned. Vasek will obviously be remembered, but we wondered if someone as influencial as Mulroney is would be. Ponder it, and if you are a new player ask yourself, if you didn't see the flipsider video of mulroney, would you have any idea who he was?



I got a little restless, and the group of us Young-sters went out to Dundas Square again. Zach was drunk and burnt out, although you coulnd't tell because he was energetic as ever. He even played footbag pretty well. We showed off for sure, and Ben hit his first (I think?) Spinning ducking neck catching handstand. The crowd loves handstands during footbag. Everyone had their try at DATW for the crowd, and I hit ripstein, which wowed them a bunch. We met up with the Breakdancers again, and I was even convinced by Ben to play some footbag on the mat they had. It was cool I guess, but I felt a little bit like a dink by stealing a minute or two of their show. They were probably tired anyway. After we got Zach to go back to the bar, instead of playing as much dangerous drunk footbag as possible, we said re-hellows to everyone. I talked with Jorden a bit about his Circle Comp. win, and he is such a cool dude. He has such a positive and "learning" point of view about life that it can't help but make you see things his way, a glimpse into his mind. By the way, Penske said that Poutine really just tasted like mashed potatoes and gravy, which was good, but his poutine in my opinion was sub-par. It had Cheddar cheese for gods sake. Matt Cross was in the background doing an Andrew Grant interview, which I think will turn out pretty well. Andrew is a cool guy, and I think my question asking tactics of death got on his nerves a tiny bit. Either way, in a circle with him he showed me alot of stuff and with good form. He has such a solid warm up routine, rediculous really. Every tiltless link imaginable, and then he just goes all the way up to hitting a beast.

The walk back.

I am not sure how much of this I can put on modifed, but I will sum up what happend for me Ben Zach with a few words.

-Lions growl and knocking over a tree
-Throwing a table on a random escalator
-replanting flower arrangements
-slight molestation of street signs,
-Screaming "THAT IS SEXIST!" when looking at a Male pedestrian sign...
-Zach's big 12 inch slice in his ribcage.
-Crusty Clit poem.


we went to bed. We were all in seperate rooms. Before t

SUNDAY

*Some sunday morning song plays in the background*

The plan was to wake up at around 9:00 and get pancakes. I wake up at 9:45 and Zach is inches away from knocking on my door to wake me up. Seeing the friendly face, I eagerly went downstairs and BEEEEN roscoe made me pancakes! They had stopped making them, and like a true champ he made me fucking food! HE had NOOO obligation to do something that generous. Pimp. We called Mike just to make sure what we were going to do in the Rain, because the schedule on his awesome map told us we were going to be playing outside. He told us to sit tight, and wait for a bit to call him back when other people were actually awake enough to understand the vital situation. We all went to Tomothy's, which is a little coffee shop and talked footbag. Zach has pretty optimistic views of how much potential footbag has for the mainstream, and from my pessimistic view of everything it was a refresher. In the middle of the conversation, while me and Ben eat our desserts for breakfast, Zach comes back and informs us that he is godlike. He is such a nice guy that he bought us breakfast sandwhiches, and said it was just because he didn't get to do enough nice stuff for his fellow footbaggers.

I SUCK! I've never done something so nice in my entire life.

We ate the breakfast sandwhiches, which were super tasty, and we talked and shot the shit for another hour. We then called Mike and he told us the shred-meetup spot at Union and we got there right on time. The FAT crew, with the exception of Mike, was already there and we all woke up slowly. ZAch of course was footbagging, and trying some really hard tricks on request. Most failed however, because marius at 12:00 PM with sore all-weekend-long-hack legs don't mix. He was so into it though, I don't know how he had the energy. People trickled in, and finally the entire group including Camille Johnny and Penske came in. Penske, again, was in the search of food and we, again, didn't respond. Instead we went to the shred spot, because it was raining and cold outside. The building was really cool,, pretty beautiful raindow cool, and everyone was visibly worn out. Some circles formed, and Penske asked me and Jorden if we wanted to feed ourselves. So, abandoning 20 footbaggers were went to Harveys. We took our sweet time, and like footbaggers, looked at 20 restaurants before we decided on the first one we passed. Jim didn't know what Harvey's was, and was pleased with the burger. I was oddly proud of the fact that he liked it, which was odd because I have nothing to do with the Canadian Fast food industry. Just some sort of "Canadian food is good enough for Penske" feelings rushed through my emotions.

We walked back, and everyone was waiting for us. I felt a bit like an inconsiderate member, as we held up an entire group from leaving the place. We actually walked right by, as a group, the place that we just ate harveys which was kind of funny. Matt Cross had to go, and we all hugged and said goodbye. It was a sad moment, but 5 minutes later we found him near a cash register purchasing some yoghurt, and as a stealthy group we stood a foot behind him as he ordered. He turned around, and had the "wait, WTF?!" face all within about 1.5 seconds. It was just one of those comical, you had to be there things to appreciate his reaction. We ambled through the corridors of underground union station, and found a shred spot. It was warm and big enough for a couple circles, which was a good backup plan for a rainy day.
There was shred here and there, and many a goodbye. Matt Cross did a couple of interviews, and Jorden hacked and juggled. The one Matt Cross interview, I actually inverviewed Matt Cross. This experience was thrilling, as some kid 3 years from now is going to watch it, and it will be history. This isn't to make it sound epic, it is just weird that it will be such a weird frame of mind in such a short time. He instructed me to do some things in order to produce a good video, and afterwards I felt like I lacked in alot of areas. I need to learn to smile like Matt Cross. Everyonce in a while, after I was talking I'd look back at him and he'd have this huge smile, and it reminded me that I wasn't smiling. He is just so captivating in his speech, he is the perfect person to do interviews. I played a little bit with Camille, and hit some ok strings for a warm up, but my legs were just wasted. I got my first super clean and controlled blender->zooming, which I have never tried before. After a few more goodbyes from various people, and Penske tearing it up, I said goodbye and left, and then realized my train was 30 minutes later and came back. I reintroduced myself to the group, and then had to say goodbye and then left again. I will end the write up with some dialogue...
Jorden: (to someone, while juggling) Hey, have you seen the reverse box?
Jay: (to Jorden, after he did the pattern) Um, what is a box?
Andrew:(Looks at Haber)
Haber:(Looks at Andrew, gutter minded)
Laughter.


____
+==========

So anyway, footbag on my side of the brain. The things I need to work on is being able to set out of my harder tricks, in any way I want. This means that all toe moves that are pretty tough, quantum stuff, pdx dlo/eggbeaters, flails, should be able to pixie/fairy/atomic out of. Eventually quantum too I guess I also want barflies and pdx whirls / pdx drifters to be able to have good sets other than like, stepping, out of them.

I think that nuclear will be high on my agenda now as well. As in, I think that it would be awesome to be another chris dean or johnny suderman with nuclear, and be just a real badass. Furious is going decent too, so those two sets will probably be at least 20 minutes a session for the next 10 years. Spinning is also feeling like I should do more than spinning clipper / spinning ducking clipper out of it too, Jorden showed me how to pivot your feet better, and I think it is real promising.

Footbag! Mhmm!

[hacksterbator]

Jay, awesome write up. It was fun to read about what happened at various times when i wasn't there. And forgive me if i was a little short with you when you were asking questions at the gym. When i'm trying to get my self psyched up for competition i generally go inside my own head and i like to stay there undisturbed. As to asking me questions about form and style, i feel the same way that you do. i feel i'm totally the wrong person to do ask from, as i am constantly struggling to fix my own form and style, which i strongly dislike. So it feels hypocritical for me to give advice on tricks that i myself feel i don't do well or know enough about.

[jay7]

Thanks Andrew and Ben, and moses, and all the rest of you for the compliments, it really makes me feel good. And it is neat to know that someone else thinks about footbag like I do, Andrew

+PSAD:

A weird note about how to hit footbag tricks.

For the last couple of days, with respect to Toronto Jam, I have been trying to get three components ALOT more consistent than they were, because I was angry at myself that, in circle I would be thinking of a trick to do and knew that it would be too risky.

So, what I have been drilling so far,

Quantum Set.
Nuclear Set.
Spinning->some component.

Quantum.
So, here is where "how to hit footbag tricks" comes in. I have been trying to get quantum for quite some time now, but in a very half ass type of way. In Germany last year if I set the bag just right on my foot, and the wind was less than 5 km/hour and the moisture in the air was just right, I could hit quantum torque both sides. I forgot about quantum for a bit, and because Atomic came slightly easier I took off with that. Then, since atomic takes more effort than clipper tricks, I concentrated on clipper instead of Atomic....

Fast forward to NYJ, I did a few atomics and people said "You have good atomics, you should do them more often"....

That motivated the shit out of me, and I drilled and drilled atomics. Then, I realized they took effort, and stopped drilling but just used the occasional atomsmasher or legbeater in my strings.

Then, in motivation for GRASS I knew that I should get good atomics. A week or two before I said to myself "DRILL TIME" and drilled. After GRASS, I realized my atomics weren't near where I wanted them to be, and drilled the shit out of them. Then when I was happy, I went to TO Jam and on Sunday, my sore legs couldn't do atomic. This pissed me off, because, it should be like pixie. Sore legs or not, to crank an atomic out should be doable.




The point to this atomic story, is that every time I hit an atomic it would have been 10x cooler if I hit quantum.




Everytime I went to drill Quantum, I'd get sidetracked on Atomic, and then you would start the cycle written above. I figured "maybe Anz's program will help me get motivated for Quantum", and, I got my first 3 blubbermans, and said "Yay, I can Quantum!"...

I go to TO JAM, and look at me go, the ONLY time I did quantum was to start a run. That sucks! Seriously, look at Johnny and all the cool kids like DC, *note, cool kids DC from worship the sack* they get quantum mid string. So, for the last 5 days I've been drilling atomics and quantums equally, and my quantum is catching up. Smear->toe blur*rpt took forever two days ago, and I got it first try today, and I got toe blur->atomsmasher bs first try, and atomsmasher->toe blur within a couple of tries as well. I repeated them a bunch of times, and I don't think I have to be scared of them anymore. No longer will I go to drill, and be scared of the inconsistency and just migrate towards whirls or something, I will be a good atomic/quantum player. No bullshit.

So, now that that immature paragraph is over with, I want to write something about Quantum that, in 3 weeks when I forget about them I can re-read so that I will not take a while to relearn it.

Think about cranking the dex foot in, as if doing a reverse atomic, and then throw your foot out like a pixie.

Quantum=done, with that in mind.

..------

Nuclear.

The trick to this set, is not to be a pussy. Don't wimp out half way through the dex, just think you are Johnny/Chris and rip it across. Don't just rip the dexing leg however, you have to really pop off the ball of your toe and bounce to the side. Then, once you haven't wimped out of the pop, you can rip the dex around and not worry about any knee troubles.

------

Spinning.

Just like Penske said, think of the bag rising up your spine. In addition to that, catch the bag low, and set NORMALLY, instead of catching the clipper high and frogging the shit out of it.

Normal clipper catch, spinning isn't hard.

--%%%

Most imporantly to all of the above tricks, do it with GOOD POSTURE.

Posture = better looking tricks. Why play footbag if you aren't a pleasure to watch.

Footpack? Believe it or not, today is the day that makes me really want to play footbag. Tomorrow when I get out of school and get homework done, the BEST feeling in the world is knowing you can get better, and if you play your cards right see a visible improvement in just one session.

[jay7]

Once again, I have switched my goals in the quest of footbag. Seems to be nearly every session I try something new in the ways of footbag progression. I guess to take the good out of that, every aspect always is in favour of the same ultimate goal; to be the best footbag player I can be.

For the last week or so I've been drilling basics. Every session I start up by hitting huge tiltless drills, and then work my way up the difficulty chain, so I don't neglect them, however Zac and Matt have inspired me to REALLY drill the basics. Stuff like consecutive mirages and infinities to really high numbers. Anyway, now that I've met most of the goals I did have for those drills, I decided to get back to my regular shred program.

For the last week the schedule has been pretty crazy, because Prom was thursday, and Friday I went to a cottage, and just got back this afternoon. I went with some Friends, and even met a new girl, who happened to be a friend of a friends girlfriend, and I taught her how to play footbag! She got legover within the half-hour, and pushed herself to get it. I am fully aware I will never see her again, and that she will probably not ever show up some hacky sack player on the street, but it was cool to see such interest. I also stitched a couple of bags because of the amount of time I had, and a couple of people at the cottage thought it was neat, and couldn't believe I had the patience. This is when I drilled those huge drills too.

Anyway, today's session I hit my school routine which I will perform on Thursday, first time, dropless. I can't help but think that all the drills I did really solidified the tiltless and low level shred I put into the routine. I'd rather sacrifice hard tricks for no drops at a school performance, and well, yeah. I'm using the song from one of Jorden's sessions, I think it was session 18. Awesome techno blabber which I have ALWAYS wanted to do a routine to. Trouble is, it is only a minute and twenty sesconds. Plum.

I also didn't neglect quantum, and I haven't since the last post. I did blur-legbeater-blur-tripwalk so many times I couldn't take it, and I can not WAIT to do it again tomorrow. It just reminds me of Clavens' shuffle, where it is just so fine and perfected. So, assuming my legs don't blow away in some sort of hazy dragon land, I should be able to do it. My goal for tomorrow is blur-legbeater-blur-tripwalk X 3 bsos. I would like to link it with Ripwalk, but maybe ripwalk will fall apart and I'll have to hit some other cool footbag trick. Maybe a spinning set, I don't think I have EVER done spinning out of legbeater or tripwalk! SHit! I suck! Why haven't I? Nevermind, halt everything, the first thing I hit after warmup tomorrow is a HUGE legbeater-spinning drill, with a tripwalk here or there. Mhmmm. Can you imagine? Just the cranking feeling of a cranked spine ready with an ankle cranking under a butterfly just ready to explode the bag up your spine while you twist your body in a footbag frenzy.

I also drilled some more flails, DLO's and Eggbeaters. I hit my longest 'symp' string today, mainly because I've never tried to link more than one symp trick to another, with exception to a drill I hit yesterday for Zac. clipper set symp mirage-symp mirage-ss symp mirage-symp mirage-flail-ss symple legover.

Can you imagine how cool it would be to stick flails in there as easy as mirages? Even cooler, to tuck your leg a little further and get a symp. double down, and then a ps whirl or something. Well, I'm going to have to pace myself, as symp isn't something to get too cocky with. Ankles break if you don't drill the fundamentals correctly (recall, last november when I landed a superfly on the side of my foot).....

Still, flails will be my bitch. Have you ever noticed, again must I reference to mind relations to footbag, that when you can picture a footbag link with perfect muscle memory, and can really 'feel' how the footbag will play you can actually hit the trick? This, in comparison to, just imagining hitting some crazy link that you are not prepaired or at all. I just got a flail-pixie vision so clear that tomorrow I am SURE to hit it.

My god I can't wait for tomorrow's session.

[Zac Miley]

My god I can't wait for tomorrow's session.

You're awesome Jay.

[acxel22]

Tomorrow go and hit spinning pdx mirage-legbeater-rpt

[LEGOMAN]

i want one of those masks.

EDIT:

remember at worlds when you asked me to hit a ripstien and i was all like ok ill try and i was all like bam and hit it and you were all like nice

[BenRea]

symp mirage-symp mirage-ss symp mirage-symp mirage-flail-ss symple legover.

I thought that was one move at first

symp tripple miraging flailing ss legover...it's a pretty easy 5 dex.

nice blog jay, I enjoy it.

[Asmus]

I don't think I've posted in here much before.

I just want to say that I really like reading your long write-ups.
Definitely one of the coolest things of our forum when people share their experinces at jams.

Also I think your mindset and progress is really inspirering and I am sure you will be a world class player.

Hope to shred with out some day,
A

[acxel22]

come to montreal next weekend


thank you

[Atom]

Nice meeting you in Hamilton today. And again I enjoy you style. I enjoyed your write up in Johnnys Bloginnings too. Today rekindled my passion to shred...in fact I'm gonna shred right now until midnight. I hope the next time you're in Brantford we get to shred.

[hacksterbator]

you write lots.
i like that.
i'm always reading...

[jay7]

Hey Will Diggs, nice Zulu Guantlet.

Everyone did see that right?

So, today I was wondering as to how I was going to play footbag, and I played some soccer today on my lunch. This influenced my decision because, everytime I run or something like that, my muscles and legs as a whole play footbag differently. I decided that it would be best to drill eggbeaters and DLO's, because they are swift.

I also had an idea, as I searched through my pile of footbags. I had a hania, which was my second 32 ever, at the bottom of the pile. The filler was, well, in order for me to accurately describe it I will just say that I never play with the Hania. It has never broken in fully, even though, as it was my second bag, it had a LONG time of hand kneading, on the 32 minute bus ride to school everyday in Germany last year. I also had, at the top of the pile, a Clavens which, is completely broken in, but just doesn't have that "Clavens" feel to a footbag. There is nothing to say I don't like the bag, I've chosen it to use in Competition because, a Sir named David made it and it belongs in competition, but I just needed a change. A juicebox later and a brand spanking new straw in hand, I swapped the filler and chuckled in glory, as the goodness of tungsten and Dr.D love had just entered my neglected and very pretty Hania. It was time to footbag.

Waddling down the stairs into my basement, I turn the massive fan that blows the cool basement air into the upstairs, heat rises, mhmm, and turned it around to evaporate the sweat I knew I would grind into the floor more quickly. Plus, angling it just so the hair under your knee's is refreshed is a sensation when you take a break and rest your hands on your thighs when tired. The "random" function on my music device played some really awesome footbag videos for me, and I was just feeling the session. PDX eggbeaters, with some thoughts that Jorden rose in me felt real easy, and I was hitting some really nice pdx dlo drills. During exceptionally dandy parts of songs that my computer spat out at me, I tampered with some filthy concepts, that spoiled my all dlo's/eggbeaters, like stepping ducking. This reminded me that I didn't want to practise my vocabulary of tricks today, and that I wanted to focus on two dex downtime toe tricks, and thought "Hey, I haven't exploited the fact that pushing your personal limits and feeling good about it, is FUN!"... A trick that my friend, who still remains tiltless to this day, asked me when I came back from Germany was to hit Arachnophobia. Stepping diving dlo. I knew there was no way in hell that I'd hit that, and it'd be stupid to try something so extreme without ever hitting diving dlo. So, I tried it a couple times.

Diving DLO both sides lead me to think "Badass, what other DLO tricks have I never hit before? Or more importantly, which variations have I hit?"

To date, I had ss dlo, pdx dlo, fog, smog, gyro dlo, and ducking dlo, the last, ducking pdx dlo, I had for sure hit in Germany under pressure to hit some crazy new trick, and I imagine I twisted about 75 degrees TOO far to make it clean. Either way, in the spirit of hitting new DLO tricks, completely new, I got.

Diving dlo. bs.
Stepping ss dlo. bs.
Pixie ss dlo. bs.
Tapping dlo. bs.
Atomic dlo. bs.
Spinning dlo. bs.
Nova, (symp dlo). bs.
Fairy ss dlo. bs.
Fairy dlo. bs.

I didn't bother with Quantum, Nuclear, Whirling, or Furious DLO, as it would have taken me hundreds of tries and very wasted legs, on tricks that I have no business hitting. Even on Fairy, which I have practised a fraction as much as the other sets, I had trouble hitting. I just did it, so that I wouldn't kick myself later and feel guilty that I hadn't tried it.

I find it funny now, that, I know the next time I go into my basement I will have absolutely no desire to hit any of those tricks. I am days away from my graduation from High School, so accordingly I have thought alot about my past 12 years as a student. Thoughts of progression from every aspect of my life, (exaggeration) have popped into my head at one point or another, and naturally the most vivid memories of it all are footbag related. Not having a girlfriend of any serious measure, and just only getting a mild social life (in Canada) this year has left me to really only have footbag to depend on. Germany is really where it all started, and I owe alot of it to Matthias, my weekly (sometimes biweekly) shredding partner who was with me from the beginning of it all. To conclude the thought of this paragraph, I just remember how EVERY week I HAD to get to his session and hit a new trick, otherwise I wouldn't feel complete. So, from February to June 2007, I hit a new trick a week, or sometimes more. It was such a huge part of how I played, that strings suffered, but I honestly didn't care.

Now, for the first time since, hell, last October, I tried hitting stupid amounts of new stuff, and, because I actually practised foundations for the last months I was able to hit 9 new, pretty difficult tricks in one session. It makes me think about how if I took people's advice about "drilling the basics" seriously, if I would have gotten better. However, on the other hand, I think it is more important to have learned the lesson the "hard" way, than to just take advice blindly and not fully appreciate it.

Odd progression in footbag.



Thanks Andrew, Zac, Kyle, Ben, Adam, Matthieu for the request, and Asmus for being the biggest pimp I have had the fortune to read on modified about. Denmark.

[jay7]

Well, it looks like it might just be my second footbag anniversary in a few days. Two years ago, a friend and I started kicking on our lunch hour because of sheer boredom, and anticipation for the upcoming soccer season which he would be taking part in. The friend of course is Liam Harland, who at the time was my best friend. Liam had tons of natural talent that I didn't have, and everyone knew it. He played soccer, and he was the player who could dangle like no other, and just command everyone on the field. Those days, he could kick the hacky sack dozens of times, while I could barely scrape two kicks off both feet. For some reason, even then, I had a huge reason to be both sided, even though I had no idea it was regarded as essential for footbag. Liam was the guy that really inspired and motivated me to play footbag. We both, pretty much simultaneously looked up flipsider, and Eli was both of our idols. Anyone here recall that undefeated video? Moses, I've seen that so many times now and each time I take a peak at it's message I can appreciate it at a totally different level. I imagine that the video itself will always do that to me, as Eli had been playing for eight years at the time. The day Liam hit his first string in front of EVERYONE, was the day I really knew that I couldn't lag behind him much. He hit, vividly, in the parking lot behind our school just as everyone was walking out to their cars for lunch, a series of one sided around the worlds, and a legover somewhere. This was groundbreaking news for the school, and he clearly dominated me, as at that time I could hardly hit mirage. The nights before that I stood in my unfinished basement and got my saucony shoes and my 99% full crocheted hack and I remember trying to stall 1000 times. I got about 3 stalls out of all of it, and I KNEW that the only way I could beat him is if I practised way more. I don't even think I stalled the bag during the last 100 or so attempts, and I was beat tired. That was also the first day I tried to get legover, and I thought it would be way easier to throw it up and then dex to stall, instead of setting it from toe. It was impossible. The outward kicking motion doesn't seem unfamiliar to me for whatever reason now, even though it should seem completely juvenile. Into the summer, my ultimate goal was to get drifter b2b. I couldn't clipper, but I went to Texas to see my family and got my first pair of Lavers, and just before I left I got my first footfighter, which, was lightyears better than the sandmans that I got a month or so earlier. I knew I was going to Germany, and every day before I left, I would bike to Liam's in the heat of summer and shred on his road. He hit whirl that summer, which, holy moses, his whirls still look sexy when he plays. I was getting some clippers b2b, and reading other's progression, I started really slowly. He taught me a lot, which, kind of reversed the feelings I had towards “beatingâ€

[Johnny]

I'm curious as to what 'mastery' book you're talking about! I wish I could be in europe with you during worlds to witness the best week of your life. A session is happening tomorrow in Hamilton. If you think you can make it let me know. The time is sortof tentative...

[Zac Miley]

You're crazy Jay. It took me 20 minutes to read that.

Loved the honesty.